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PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The Lake Erie College women's
basketball team used a dominating stretch in the first half on its
way to a 71-62 upset win over the Grand Valley State University
Lakers on Wednesday (Dec. 30) afternoon at the Jerome T. Osborne
Center.

For the second straight game five Storm players reached double
figures, led by sophomore forward Jen Caiola (South Russell,
Ohio/Chagrin Falls), who poured in 16 points and four treys.
Sophomore forward Stephanie Rogers (Mentor, Ohio/Mentor) added 13
points, eight rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

"It's a great way for us to end 2009," Lake Erie head coach Bob
Booher said. "We stepped up and played to the level of our
competition. There's a reason Grand Valley is as successful as they
are and the kids rose to the challenge."

The Lakers (7-3) jumped on the Storm early, taking a 6-0 lead,
but Lake Erie (9-8) dominated the next 13 minutes with a 31-7 run
to take a 31-13 lead.

Grand Valley, though, climbed back into the game, cutting it to
36-28 at halftime. Freshman guard Sarah Wojciechowski (Randolph,
Ohio/Waterloo) had all 10 of her points in the first half,
including three three-pointers.

Lake Erie built the lead back to 13 with 16 minutes to play, but
Grand Valley worked the Storm lead down to two points, 55-53, with
just under nine minutes to play after a layup by Kara Crawford.

Storm junior forward Alyssa Wagers (Stow, Ohio/Stow) hit two
free throws on the next possession and Caiola hit a three with 6:40
remaining to push the lead back up to seven, 60-53.

"They were starting to overwhelm us in our man-to-man, so we
switched to the zone and it created a lot of problems for them,"
Booher said.

The lead never slipped back under five points after that point
as Caiola hit a dagger three-pointer with 2:12 to play that gave
the Storm a 67-59 lead.

"Caiola hit some big shots for us," Booher said.

Lake Erie's defense forced Grand Valley to miss its next five
shots to put away the game.

The Storm picked up the win despite getting hammered on the
glass, 53-34. Grand Valley pulled down 24 offensive rebounds
(compared to just 26 defensive rebounds for the Storm), but still
held just a 16-8 advantage in second-half points.

"We aren't a really strong rebounding team," Booher said, "but
we were able to apply pressure and force them into taking bad
shots."

As a team, the Lakers shot just 33 percent (23-for-69) from the
field and turned the ball over 18 times.

Lake Erie also held Grand Valley leading scorer Jasmine Padin to
zero points on 0-for-4 shooting.

Meanwhile, the Storm connected on 45 percent (27-for-60) from
the field with eight three-pointers.

Lake Erie hits the road this weekend for a pair of games in the
Fairmont State Alumni Classic. The Storm will play Concord at 4
p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 2) before battling the host Fighting Falcons
at 3 p.m. on Sunday (Jan. 3).